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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) has presented its 2021 William and Margaret Going Endowed Professorship Award to Matthew Petrocelli, PhD, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies.

Petrocelli will present a free public lecture, entitled “Reconceptualizing Police Use of Force: A call for change in police culture, policy and training” at 9 a.m. Friday, April 15 in the Morris University Center’s Dogwood Room on the Edwardsville campus.

The Going Award is the College of Arts and Sciences’ most distinguished award and is bestowed upon faculty who have produced outstanding scholarship and connected that scholarship in fundamental ways to their teaching and transformed students’ lives.

“Dr. Petrocelli has compiled a remarkable record as both a scholar and a teacher,” said CAS Dean Kevin Leonard, PhD. “His research, the results of which include three books and many articles in influential journals, has made a lasting contribution to the academic understanding of policing. His careful approach to evidence and analysis in his scholarship carries over into his teaching. Students acknowledge that he holds them to high standards, but they praise his clarity and support in helping them to succeed.”

Throughout his career, Petrocelli’s research has contributed to important breakthroughs in policing research, such as racial profiling and the idea of continuum of force in which use of force by police officers is conceptualized as a linear progression from the mere presence of a police officer through the use of hands-on techniques, less-than-lethal force weapons and lethal force.

“My contribution to the notion of the use of force continuum has helped enable the policing community to reform its use of force policies and give officers more concrete steps to take predicated on the suspect resistance they are facing,” Petrocelli explained. “In the early 2000s, no one really knew the extent to which racial profiling was being utilized in the U.S., and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to empirically document that nefarious practice, which, along with other studies, led to widespread changes in how police conduct traffic stops.”

This research led Petrocelli to publish his first book, “Anatomy of a Motor Vehicle Stop,” which blended theory and practice to show police officers proper, legally-validated methods of traffic enforcement and is now an academy text for dozens of police agencies, including the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

His latest research surrounds police officer training and how to better establish wellness programs for police officers.

“As a West Point graduate and former Army officer, I was always intrigued by and concerned with training police officers using the military model, but it obviously exploded as a national issue several years later in the wake of the Ferguson riots,” said Petrocelli. “Policing is a complex, difficult job, and departments need to do a much better job providing support for the physical and psychological health of their officers. I hope to have an impact in that arena as well.”

In his Going Public Lecture, Petrocelli will outline how police departments and policy makers can better address national concerns about how and why police use force in the wake of the George Floyd verdict.

“I have been fortunate to collaborate with excellent scholars who have been instrumental in whatever success I have had as a researcher,” Petrocelli stated. “Specifically, Michael Smith, JD, PhD, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas, San Antonio; my brother Joseph Petrocelli, MA, MS, retired detective-commander with the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department in New Jersey; and my wonderful wife Trish Oberweis, PhD, professor in the SIUE Department of Criminal Justice Studies. My deep thanks to them and all the scholars I have had the pleasure of working with.”

Photo: Matthew Petrocelli, PhD, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies.